It was 13 years later when Tsuruta, at the time the top star in the company, was shocked when Giant Baba asked him a few hours before their match to lose in a Budokan Hall main event to Misawa. That wasn’t how wrestling in Japan worked at that time, but as history has shown pretty clearly, Baba’s instincts in seeing the audience reaction with loud “Misawa” chants coming out of nowhere every few minutes in the hour before the show started in the building, as well as in the hours before outside the ring in the giant line to get in the lone exit, sensed it was the right time to do the unexpected. It was a unique atmosphere that night, something that I’d never experienced before and never experienced live since at any sporting event.
Part of the reason that match became so famous, and turned business around, the Japanese equivalent of the December 25, 1982, Ric Flair vs. Kerry Von Erich cage match in Dallas (which set up The Freebirds vs. Von Erichs feud), or the Steve Austin I Quit match with Bret Hart and title win over Shawn Michaels with Mike Tyson as referee, which led to Austin’s popularity exploding, is because everyone in the arena that night wanted to see Misawa win. And pretty much, nobody really expected that he would. Baba was sitting at the concession stand near the entrance of the building, seeing the huge business for Misawa merchandise almost out of nowhere , hearing the buzz of the crowd, and sent the message to Tsuruta, in the dressing room.
Three weeks before what turned out to be the most pivotal match of his career, All Japan was running at the Tokyo Gym. During a match with Tiger Mask & Kawada vs. Yoshiaki Yatsu & Samson Fuyuki, after Tiger Mask pinned Fuyuki with a German suplex, he told Kawada to untie his mask. After doing so, Misawa pulled his mask off and threw it to the crowd, grabbed the mic, and challenged Tsuruta to a singles match, which headlined the June 8, 1990, show at Budokan Hall.
It was a moment that nobody could have fully expected the reaction to, as Tiger Mask was certainly a star, but he was not at the time, that big of a star. But the crowd exploded in chants of “Misawa,” which started happening at all the house shows over the next few weeks. It was certainly the reaction they wanted, but far better than even the most optimistic expectations.
